A path to ending food deserts, reviving local grocery stores, and lowering prices.
To illuminate how consolidation shapes food access, ILSR created an interactive map that shows food deserts alongside the location of different types of grocery stores — independent, small chains, large chains, and megachains like Walmart and Kroger. By displaying the locations of different types of stores alongside food-desert areas, this map helps users explore how corporate concentration has reshaped food access across the United States.
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In The Atlantic, Stacy Mitchell explains the true origin of food deserts in America. Before the 1980s, many neighborhoods that are now food deserts actually had a diverse and competitive grocery landscape. The problem isn’t the neighborhoods themselves; the problem is price discrimination that favors big chains over independent grocers.
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For decades the U.S. grocery industry was remarkably competitive, with independent grocers thriving alongside large chains like Kroger and Safeway. Virtually every neighborhood and small town had a grocery store, and many had several. Then, in the early 1980s, the government stopped enforcing the Robinson-Patman Act, a critical antitrust law that prohibits price discrimination by suppliers. Food deserts and higher prices followed.
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A More Perfect Union documentary explains a Pepsi/Walmart price discrimination scheme — exposed by an FTC lawsuit unsealed by ILSR.
ILSR's brief explains how corporate consolidation fueled high food prices, and the critical role independent grocers play in building resilient local food systems.
Newly unsealed FTC filing accuses PepsiCo of favoring Walmart while artificially inflating prices for local grocers and consumers.
The Mamdani administration has a crucial opportunity to reverse New York City's affordability crisis; this ILSR policy memo suggests strategies to do so.
This virtual event featured Federal Trade Commissioner Alvaro Bedoya alongside community leaders, independent grocers, and advocates—to examine the ways dominant retailers exert their power, how community leaders are fighting back, and what federal leaders must do to cultivate fairness in our food system.
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ILSR investigates how dollar store chains are using predatory tactics to kill off grocery stores and other local businesses, harming rural and urban communities alike.
Powerful retailers are dominating supply chains. Our report argues it’s time to revive the Robinson-Patman Act to restore antitrust enforcement against predatory buying.
In 203 markets, Walmart controls 50% or more of the grocery market. No other corporation has ever amassed this much control over the food system.
Community leaders have good reason to be concerned about chain dollar stores. Here's an explanation of 17 ways dollar stores can hurt communities.
